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T O P I C R E V I E W

ColinBurgess

I was recently asked to read a final draft of Duane (Doc) Graveline's latest book, "From Laika With Love: Secret Soviet Gifts to Apollo," which I found remarkably interesting. The book is now with the printers and will, I believe, be available next month.

There's also a rather harrowing account in the book of the Apollo 1 fire written by Dr. Fred Kelly, which relates the events and aftermath of that tragic day from a person who was the first to enter the charred spacecraft after the fire had been quelled, and was on the Accident Investigation Board.

Anyway, there's a description of the book, a photo of the front and back covers, and my review at this site.

ColinBurgess

I've made enquiries about this book with Duane Graveline's agent who has informed me that the book should be available from Amazon at the end of the month. See Doc's website for details.

There is a handful of copies available that are signed by both Duane Graveline and Dr. Fred Kelly, available for $20 (free shipping in the U.S., $8 overseas) to any collectSPACE enquirers.

If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these dual-signed copies, see Doc's site (linked above).

albatron

Doc gave me one to read also (through my friend Kevin Taylor) - and I highly recommend it.

A real insight into the Russian space program from an entirely different perspective, as well.

medaris

My copy arrived in the UK safely - thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention, Colin. The biometric monitoring account by Duane Graveline is very interesting, as others have noted.

I hadn't read anything by Fred Kelly before. I'd known about the previous Russian death associated with 100% oxygen, but not about the US cases he documents of accidents in either high pressure or high oxygen (or both) enviroments. They're probably in the Apollo 1 report, but this was an accessible way to read about them. All in all, it's a very worthwhile little volume.

Jay Chladek

quote:Originally posted by medaris:I'd known about the previous Russian death associated with 100% oxygen, but not about the US cases he documents of accidents in either high pressure or high oxygen (or both) environments.

Was one of the incidents he documents the oxygen fire that occurred that same week at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas? Only other mention I read of that was in the Aviation Week issue which covered Apollo 1.

John Charles

Inexplicably, I would have missed this thread completely, had not Francis French pointed me to it. Dr. Graveline's new book sounds like a must-read, especially his discussion of the incidents of chamber fires preceding the Apollo 1 disaster.

Here's what I heard back from Doc's agent in regard to the book's availability:

The Laika book has been accepted into the Ingram catalog and from there book retailers including Amazon pick it up, but I am advised that it can take up to 6 weeks to get listed on Amazon's site.

In the meantime, double signed copies (Dr Graveline and Dr Kelly) from the original printing are still available. There are no plans for them to sign any copies beyond these.

A lot of people have already ordered and these are the instructions I am sending out which have worked perfectly so far. These are for signed books only. If anyone wants the unsigned ones which will be discounted from the list price then they'll have to wait until they're on Amazon, etc.

To make ordering simple, use the existing online ordering system on Doc's site for his Statin Drugs book. This will automatically total out at $20 each with free shipping the the US - $5 additional to Canada and $8 to the UK and Australia. You can use Visa or Mastercard. So that I can identify the book you want, be sure to type LAIKA in the company name field in the ship to address (this is on the screen where you enter the credit card information).

Hope this helps those who want to buy the book.

FFrench

Thanks Colin - I ordered a copy using those instructions. I ordered it on a Friday evening, the book was mailed on the Saturday morning and arrived on Monday! Can't beat that for service.

kr4mula

I also got my copy on Friday using the above instructions, with no problems.

Has anyone had a chance to read this yet? Looks like a quick read, but I haven't had the time (holiday and all) to do more than read the first couple pages. I'd like to see some reviews or impressions.

quote:Originally posted by medaris:I'd known about the previous Russian death associated with 100% oxygen, but not about the US cases he documents of accidents in either high pressure or high oxygen (or both) enviroments.

That's not all - there was around the early 80's an oxygen fire in one of the shuttle EMUs being tested in Conn., I believe. Does anyone remember that one?

kr4mula

Yeah, I've got the report on that shuttle EMU accident around here somewhere. I believe it actually happened at JSC, if memory serves. A couple of the NASA suit guys still talk about that with a bit of edge in their voice. I'll see if I can dig that report up from my files.

fredtrav

Got in touch with Doc Graveline last week (thanks Colin). Bought a signed copy of From Laika with Love from him, nicely inscribed to me. Just started reading it and it is well worth reading.

He has copies he will sell signed for $25. including shipping, You can contact him.

Tykeanaut

I have only read two reviews for this book, one for and one indifferent. Is it one for the bookshelf?

jvertrees

I met Doc Graveline about two years ago and have read both his books, "From Laika with Love" and "Surly Bonds". Both books are fast passed and well written. He talks a lot about his scientific contributions to the program. An area I haven't read a lot about and do find very interesting. I believe both books are only in paperback and self published. I liked them both and should put a review in Amazon and B&N for them.

Dr. Graveline was ousted from the astronaut corps about 9 to 10 months after selection because it was thought his divorce would put a black eye on the astronauts as a whole in that era. He doesn't seem to have completely reconciled that in a positive way in his life. Those passages are short and really don't taint the overall tone of his story. I don’t like reading some of his grievances with his firing but let’s be real. How can you say getting ousted from such a huge scientific undertaking is something to just suck up and get over? It is part of our overall story.

He writes so well I was actually pulling for him to survive the “firing” and get a flight full well knowing the outcome in advance. He does go into some detail with his contributions with zero gravity research and also his tracking of the Soviet flights beginning with Sputnik. He also points out and documents some of the radiation problems we have with space flight and the need to solve that issue before we can expect to go much further. I truly find both books well worth the time to read and do have them in my collection. You can buy both copies signed at the link in an above post at a very reasonable price. He did have some very significant contributions in the early stages of getting American Astronauts into space. To understand all the facets of getting into space in the beginning years of NASA he doe s have a voice that belongs in the story.

Tykeanaut

Thank you for your reply.

kr4mula

In my opinion, the book has some interesting stories from the two authors, but I'd hesitate to call it well-written. It comes off as written by train-of-thought (or perhaps like an oral history), without a lot of concern for narrative coherence.

It's also typical of a self-published book in many ways. It's in serious need of some professional editing, for one thing, and the production value isn't great. It has some weird cut-and-paste artifacts, for example.

If you're really into the space medicine side of things, it's probably worthwhile. The Apollo 1 fire stuff alone is worth a read, but but it's not up there with any of the top space books.

jvertrees

I have to agree with the criticism to my above comment of "well written." It has been a while since I read the book and after reading kr4mula's above post of Dr. Graveline's book needing professional editing and oral history style I do agree. It did take a bit to get into the book but once I did I do remember that there is a good and interesting story there. I am glade I read it because it does have some good information from two people who were part of the program in the early days.

The flaws mentioned by kr4mula are real as well as Dr. Graveline seems to still have a couple of unreconciled grievances with some people in his past. A good editor would either pull those references out or direct them to a more appropriate direction. Overall I think the book is well written and has some good information. It does need some professional TLC to make it a complete finished product. Knowing when I am reading a self published work I tend to be a bit more forgiving and read them more as a draft and not totally a finished product.

To me one of the more interesting aspects of the book was how some of the American and Soviet scientists would try and get information to and from the other program. Not in an undermining or treasonist way but with some published work and more wide sweeping general directions. Also with some of the actual occurrences being some 40 plus years ago and likely undocumented "until now" it is likely some of the remembrances are not spot on.